GE Maps: Censored by French Court, Republished by Greenpeace International, Featured by BoingBoing

It was always going to be the *perfect* BoingBoing story: Greenpeace France publishes a Google Map showing locations of GE Crop fields. Farmers take Greenpeace to court. French Government orders map and webpage removed, despite the fact that the French Government is in fact obliged under EU law to make the locations of commercial GE sites public.

So the court order tells Greenpeace France to remove the map "from all websites it publishes." Well now, Greenpeace France doesn't publish the Greenpeace International website, does it?

We republished the map from our servers in Amsterdam.

And to top it off, Greenpeace France carves a crop circle in one of the fields to mark the alien invasion.

Net Censorship, high tech tactics against a clueless court, government double standards, and a wacky crop circle twist. How could it NOT be a BoingBoing story?

This is what I sent:

Greenpeace France has been ordered to remove a Google Map from its website revealing the locations of Genetically modified cornfields -- information which the EU actually *requires* the government of France to make public. Greenpeace France complied with, but will likely appeal, the censorship order. They also carved a giant crop circle X into one of the fields, making its location visible from the air. Greenpeace International is now hosting the map from its servers in Amsterdam. "If the French government won't provide this information to the French public, we will" said Greenpeace International spokesperson Suzette Jackson. "It's outrageous that Greenpeace France is being censored while the French Government fails to uphold EU disclosure law."

France: Greenpeace can't show GE crop sites on Google Map

A French court has ordered Greenpeace France to take down a web page with a Google Map that shows locations of commercial, genetically engineered corn fields in France. Greenpeace argues the online maps should not be censored because an EU law requires the French government to make the crop site information public anyway.Greenpeace responded by carving a giant 'X' crop circle into one of the genetically engineered corn fields the courts banned in digital map form.

"Greenpeace France complied with, but will likely appeal, the censorship order," Brian Fitzgerald of Greenpeace tells BoingBoing, "And Greenpeace International is now hosting the map from its servers in Amsterdam.